The New South Wales explorer, which has billionaire coal baron Hans Mende on its board, announced it received environmental assessment requirements for the project from the state government yesterday.

These requirements are needed to frame the crucial Environmental Impact Statement, with Malabar saying a key milestone has been achieved.

While the project was once envisioned to house two longwalls producing a total of 10 million tonnes per annum, prefeasibility work whittled down the plans to a single longwall operation targeting 6-8Mtpa for an average of 6.4Mtpa for at least two decades.

The proposed longwall panels are 300m wide with mining losses to be 3% of the seam, coal left on the floor.

First production is targeting the late 2017 to early 2018 timeframe.

Unlike the planning issues facing Anglo American’s Drayton South project to the immediate east, the Spur Hill project has no horse studs and the only small-scale vineyard in the permit is already owned by Malabar.